There are
numerous sources that help to shed light on how the completion of the
Transcontinental Railroad impacted economic growth in the west. One of the most interesting sources comes
from various newspapers of the time immediately following the completion of the
railroad. A plethora of articles on the
economic opportunities to be found in the west demonstrate how Americans of the
time understood what the Transcontinental Railroad had brought to their
nations. This was particularly true for
immigrants. As one newspaper of the time
noted, not only were immigrant workers fundamental to the construction of the
Transcontinental Railroad, and to the budding industries that grew in towns
along its route, but even foreign investors found opportunities to increase
their capital by investing in this grand American expansion west. “German, Dutch and Austrian bankers [have]
left Europe…for the purpose of examining the condition of the work and financial
prospects of the railway.”[1] In his book, The Filth of Progress,
historian Ryan Dearinger notes that immigrants, along with Mormons already living
in the Utah territory, benefited tremendously from the new railroad. “In the Utah Territory…the construction of
the transcontinental railroad accelerated a new peopling of immigrants and
emigrants on a wageworkers’ frontier…These groups, whose brains and brawn built
the railroad, would test the litmus of racial democracy in the American West,
that place of endless opportunities, a proving ground for national progress.”[2]
In
addition to immigrants benefiting from expansion west, the American government
found new opportunities to strengthen its control over the republic. In the wake of the Civil War, western
expansion brought with it ample opportunities to influence how expansion westward
was to be achieved. In what became the main
stage in a heated political battle, western expansion, and the construction of
the Transcontinental Railroad itself, became a heated topic in the halls of government.[3] Historian Xavier Duran notes that almost
every aspect of the Transcontinental Railroad was controlled and oversaw by a nee
federal government that was determined to be involved in as many aspects of western
expansion as possible. “Government intervened,
although high private profits were expected, because the project involved high
political risk. Competition in Congress
over the location of the route and appropriation of the gains of the project
caused political deadlock…Subsidies acted to ameliorate the negative long-term
effects of political risk – not market failure – on private investment.[4]
When one
compares how the Transcontinental Railroad improved economic opportunities for
both immigrants and for the growing United States federal government, it is
important to understand how western expansion transformed American
economics. As Historian Richard White points
out, “The idea that railroads remade North America and in doing so created the
modern corporate world is hardly new…All of the possibilities that arose with
railroads seemed magnified in the transcontinentals, which came to epitomize
progress, nationalism and civilization itself…All I would change is that they
created modernity as much by their failure as their success.”[5] Historian Robert Fogel emphasizes these
points when he discusses how the rise of railroads coincided with the rise of
other industries like coal, iron, etc.[6]
In short,
western expansion and the dawn of the modern American economy that accompanied,
were the incubators which gave rise to the emerging immigrant working class and
the newly legitimized post-Civil War federal government, both of which found
new opportunities for growth, expansion and legitimization in the American West. As America moved west, it also moved into the
future. The archaic models of an American
economy, devoted primarily to agriculture and small communities, was replaced
with iron, steel coal and rails, carrying on its back a modern interpretation
of capitalist economics in which a strong working force, along with an even
stronger federal government, existed in a symbiotic relationship that brought
with it greater prosperity than ever before.
[1] “Northern
Railways to the Pacific.” The
Missouri Republican (St. Louis, MO.: July 25, 1871). Pp. 1. Newspapers: Publisher
Extra. https://www.newspapers.com/image/666862675/?terms=transcontinental%2Brailroad%2Bjobs
[2] Ryan
Dearinger, “Hell (and Heaven) on Wheels”: Mormons, Immigrants and the Reconstruction
of American Progress and
Masculinity on the Transcontinental Railroad.”
From, The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West (University
of California Press, 2016). Pp. 109. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt196331g.8.
[3] “Fight
in Both Houses Over Railroad Land Jobs.”
The New York Daily Herald (New York: May 6, 1870). Pp. 3. Newspapers: Publisher
Extra. https://www.newspapers.com/image/329421318/?terms=transcontinental%2Brailroad%2Bjobs
[4] Xavier
Duran, "The First U.S.
Transcontinental Railroad: Expected Profits and Government
Intervention." The Journal
of Economic History vol. 73, no. 1 (March, 2013). Pp. 180.
http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdocview%2F1326735764%3Faccountid%3D12085.
[5]
Richard White, Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern
America (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011). Pp. xxi.
[6] Robert
W. Fogel, Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Econometric
History. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1964). Pp. 296.
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